The art of printing with micro-fluid technology is relatively well known. A permanent or semi-permanent ejection head has access to local or remote supplies of fluid (e.g., ink). The fluid ejects from an ejection zone to a print media in a pattern of pixels corresponding to images being printed. Fluid absorbed in the media dries. It is known to cause curling.
In simple terms, curling is a distortion in which the edges or corners of the media roll or migrate toward the printed side of the media and away from the non-printed side. It results in a tube or scroll shape that prevents convenient stacking of multiple sheets. It also makes difficult the reading or displaying of images on the sheets. It can also make it difficult to print precisely, if the curling begins during printing; changing the print gap before printing is complete.
Remedies to prevent curling are plentiful in the art. They include double-sided printing, steaming, and hot plates to iron curls. Other remedies include formulating anti-curling inks. All, however, add complexity and/or expense to imaging devices and ink formulas.
A need exists to more simply prevent curling. The need extends not only to keeping simple the imaging device and its ink, but to inexpensively and quickly minimizing curling during the imaging process. Additional benefits and alternatives are also sought when devising solutions.